


Kiss Me Like You Mean It

by pocky_slash



Series: Daycare 'Verse [10]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Backstory, First Kiss, Gen, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-09
Updated: 2011-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-22 10:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles Xavier's first kiss. (And his second.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss Me Like You Mean It

**Author's Note:**

> Part of [Daycare Verse](http://archiveofourown.org/series/9224), an AU wherein Charles runs a mutant daycare and Erik is his long-suffering engineer boyfriend, but this is backstory, so it takes place long before Charles meets Erik. The characters in this chapter are thirteen, so warning for, I guess, a thirteen year old's lack of sensitivity regarding things like sexuality.

Emma's sisters are dressed in their riding outfits when Franklin, the chauffeur, drops Charles off in front of their house. His nose is still red and peeling from the afternoons spent out by the lake (even at science camp they forced you out doors, it seemed), and he tries not to scratch it as he steps out of the car. Adrienne and Cordelia pause in their gossip long enough to tell him that Emma is inside, so he pulls his satchel closer and rings the bell.

Emma's the one who answers, not the help. Charles isn't surprised--it was less than fifteen minutes ago that he instant messaged her begging for an escape after only an hour home from camp.

"Good," she says. "You're here. The last three days have been _so_ boring."

Something tight that clenched in his chest the day he said goodbye to Tony and Emma unfurls and Charles smiles with relief. He knows, really, there's no reason that the two of them would abandon him while he was away at camp, but they were at camp too and there's always the chance they found new (better) best friends in his absence.

"Camp was pretty boring, too," Charles admits, and steps into the Frost house, Emma shoving the door shut behind him.

"Mother!" Emma calls. "Charles is here! We're going--"

Emma's mother appears at the top of the center staircase and descends with her usual air of cool aristocracy.

"Hello, Charles," Mrs. Frost says.

"Hello, Mrs. Frost," Charles says dutifully.

"Did you enjoy--what was it? Science camp?"

"Oh, very much, ma'am. It was wonderful and I'm sure the things I learned will be invaluable," Charles says.

"How nice." Mrs. Frost turns to Emma, "Darling, Mommy has company coming. Perhaps you and Charles can play outside?"

Emma gives her mother a look that says, _We're_ thirteen _, we don't_ play _anymore_ and _We were going out there anyway_ , but she doesn't, as far as Charles can tell, actually project either of those things telepathically, choosing instead to let her glare speak for itself.

"Well," Mrs. Frost says, making a vague shooing motion. "Get."

They had planned on going outside anyway--Charles had brought his swimming things--but Emma huffs as if it's a burden and leads him back to the pool.

"Equestrian camp was fine, by the way," Emma says, shooting him a look as they meander through the house.

"I was going to ask eventually!" Charles insists. "I only just got here, you know."

"Still," Emma says. To make up for it, he pushes open the french door to the backyard and gestures for her to go first. "And I thought you said camp was boring. In your letters, all you did was complain about how you already knew everything."

"It was," Charles admits. "And I did. But your mom will talk to Kurt and Kurt's already complaining to mum that science camp's not _real_ camp. He wants to send me to boy scout camp." Charles sighs and sits on the wooden swing at the edge of the pool deck, next to the changing house. Emma sits next to him, frowning.

"You're not a boy scout," Emma says.

"Apparently that doesn't matter," Charles says. "Kurt thinks boy scout camp will toughen me up. He says all the science camp crap is just making me queer."

Emma doesn't say anything at first, but Charles can feel her eyes on him. "So?" she finally says. "There's nothing wrong with being gay." There's a fission of defensiveness in the statement, and Charles guesses that the rumors about why her older brother was sent to boarding school are probably true.

"I know," Charles says. "I mean, I always thought that if Kurt doesn't like something, that must make it okay on principle." He pushes the ground slightly with the tip of his shoe starting the chair in a gentle swing. "Still."

The chair swings back and forth several times, Charles' toe slowly dragging against the concrete.

"Charles," Emma says after some time, " _Are_ you gay?"

Charles whips his head around to look at her, eyes wide and finally displaying the slight panic he's been feeling since overhearing Kurt's argument the morning he left for camp.

"I don't _know_!" he says. "I've never even kissed anyone!"

"Well," Emma says. "That's easy enough to solve." She puts her foot down to stop the slow arc of the swing and then slides across the bench. Before Charles knows what's happening, Emma is cupping his jaw and pressing her mouth against his. He closes his eyes, because he figures that's what he's supposed to do, and flails his hands a little before settling them tentatively on her shoulders.

When she pulls back, he blinks.

"Well?" she says, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," he admits. "It was... weird. Is it supposed to be weird?"

"I don't know," Emma says. "It's hard to explain. It does feel weird, but a good kind of weird."

Charles just feels the kind of weird that comes from having sweaty palms and someone unexpectedly in your space on a humid day.

"Maybe it's just weird because you're my best friend," Charles suggests, scratching at the back of his neck. "Not just because you're a girl."

Emma looks thoughtful.

"Well, there is one way to figure that out," she says.

***

Tony's actually been back from engineering camp since yesterday, but today his dad is flying out to California and the household staff and his mom are a little more lenient about letting him out of the house when he's technically been grounded. It takes him about half an hour to show up.

"Hey, guys," he says. "Camp was insane. You should have seen the robot I built. It was amazing! I mean, before it crashed into the administration building."

"I'll bet," Charles says. "It sounds much more exciting than my camp. You'd have been bored to tears. The lectures were things we knew in _grade school_. It's supposed to be for geniuses and I finished all my coursework in two days."

"That sucks, man," Tony says. He tosses his duffel bag onto the pool deck next to Charles' satchel and pulls over a deck chair. "So, what's up?"

"Charles is gay, maybe," Emma says.

The rest of Charles' face flushes as bright as his nose. " _Emma!_ " he hisses.

"What?" Emma asks. "That's what we're trying to find out. No reason to be coy about it."

"What does that have to do with me?" Tony asks.

"Well," Emma says, as Charles covers his face with his hands, "I kissed him and he said it just felt weird, but maybe that was because I was his best friend, not because I was a girl. So, obviously, he should kiss you. If he feels weird about that, too, then we'll just have to find him more people to kiss until he figures it out. If he _doesn't_ feel weird, then he's probably actually gay. Right?"

"There are _so many_ flaws in that plan, Emma," Charles says without uncovering his eyes.

"I don't know," Tony says. "Seems sound to me."

When Charles drops his hands to stare at Tony incredulously, he's grinning.

"Tony!" Charles pleads. "You're a man of science! You know this doesn't make any sense."

"I think it makes a lot of sense," Tony says. "It's worth a try, isn't it? We're scientists! It's all in the name of experimentation."

Charles swallows hard. It's really not even necessary, this experiment, because he has a feeling he already knows how it's going to turn out. If he's honest with himself--and after this, there will be no more lying--while he's always been aware of the fact that Emma is, objectively, pretty, he's usually more aware of Tony stupid smile and his stupid eyes and his stupid hands. And by "stupid," Charles means, "really unreasonably attractive."

Charles shrugs anyway, and waves a hand weakly in defeat, motioning for them to just do it. Emma and Tony switch places, Tony sitting next to Charles on the swing and Emma looking on eagerly from the deck chair. Tony slides close to Charles and curls his hand around Charles' jaw, and this time Charles knows what's coming. His eyes flutter closed as Tony's lips touch his, this time of their own volition, and as their mouths slide together, Charles finds himself parting his lips, just a little, like he can't help himself. One of his hands rests on Tony's shoulder and the other falls to his waist and Emma was right, it _does_ feel weird, but...good, too. Like there's something warm in the pit of his stomach making his fingers and head all tingly.

When they pull apart, Emma is smirking.

"I knew it!" she says.

Charles looks at Tony, whose eyes are smug and satisfied, and swallows against the butterflies in his own stomach that are just confirming what he's suspected all along.

"Fuck," he murmurs.


End file.
